Gov. John Hickenlooper and thousands of others gathered for the annual Zombie Crawl on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver on Saturday. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

Maybe all politicians should first run a brewpub before they decide to run for office because that experience certainly has made John Hickenlooper uninhibited.

A year ago, the Colorado governor happened to catch a glimpse of the Zombie Crawl on the 16th Street Mall in Denver and thought, “That sounds like fun.” Another politician might have thought, “No way, they’d use my picture in an attack ad.” (Of course, he could always claim he got in Speaker Frank McNulty’s way.)

This year, Hickenlooper asked his 10-year-old son, Teddy, if he wanted to go.

“Do you know how long it took to talk Teddy into? One half of one second,” the governor said Monday. “We had so much fun. It was a blast.”

Hickenlooper said he and his son and one of his son’s friends went to a stall at Skyline Park to get their gouges and wounds. The gore looked so good Hickenlooper thought their guy was a professional makeup artist, but he told the governor he’s a software programmer.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.